Leica S2 and S system: We'd like one

If the megapixel race is plateauing in the camera market, it seems Leica didn't get the memo. The company has just unveiled the monster 37-megapixel S2 at Photokina. It's the first entry to the new S series, a range of powerful new dSLR cameras for professional photographers.

At 30x45mm, the Kodak imaging sensor is 56 per cent larger than a 35mm, or full-frame, sensor. Leica claims the S2 will have "the quality of medium format and the handling and flexibility of 35mm".

It packs a 76mm (3-inch) LCD screen, weatherproof seals and dual shutter system -- focal plane or leaf. The S2 will hit the ground running with no less than nine S-system lenses already set to go.

Product manager Maike Harberts reckons the S2 will be "twice as fast as Hasselblad's H-Series, with better performance at high ISOs too". Leica UK's David Bell told Professional Photographer that the company "honestly thinks it has the best professional camera system in the world with this." Them's fightin' words where we come from. -Rich Trenholm